FSFE Newsletter - April 2016

on 2016-04-01

EU Radio Directive
threatens software freedom

We published our position on the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU
(adopted in May 2014) that demands from device manufacturers to check each
device software's compliance. At first sight, this may sound reasonable
but it has highly negative implications on user rights and Free Software,
fair competition, innovation, environment, and volunteering – mostly
without large benefits for security. The directive needs to be implemented
in member states before 13 June 2016. We have formulated several proposals
to EU institutions and EU member states with concrete steps to solve
these issues.

US government demands publicly financed software to be published as Free Software

We would like the EU to follow this example and come up with similar
policies on the European level. If you have any feedback or comments in
regard to the US Source Code Policy, please send them to our English
discussion list or directly to Matthias Kirschner. We would like to
make sure to consider your feedback before talking with European
politicians about this topic.

FSFE was present with a booth at CIJ
Logan Symposium, a conference dedicated to gather leading journalists,
hacktivists, legal and security experts to discuss freedom of press and
digital rights. The list of the speakers at the CIJ event included Edward
Snowden, who also gave
a keynote at Libreplanet, a Free Software conference organised by FSF.

Take Action

To all awesome translators out there! Help us to expand our outreach
by updating the 'Spread
the Word' page for ordering our promotional material into your
language. Currently, the page exists in English, German, Dutch and
Albanian but it would be great to include any other languages into this
list too.

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About FSFE

Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to
control technology.

Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives. It is important
that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. Free Software
gives everybody the rights to use, understand, adapt and share software.
These rights help support other fundamental rights like freedom of
speech, freedom of press and privacy.

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The Free Software Foundation Europe is a non-profit non-governmental
organisation. Our work is made
possible by a community of
volunteers,
Fellows and
donors. Your donations are critical to our
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Software wherever necessary, and to be an independent voice.
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